Analytical paper on Youth Participation. What do we mean by "participation"?

Pleyers, Geoffrey [UCL] Karbach, Nadine [UCL]

Pleyers G., Karbach N. 2014, “”, Brussels: Council of Europe. http://pjp-eu.coe.int/documents/1017981/7495153/What+is+youth+participation.pdf/223f7d06-c766-41ea-b03c-38565efa971a The authors develop four interconnected ways to better understand current developments, paradoxes and ways to deal with youth political participation in Europe: 1. Expand the concept of participation and democracy beyond conventional forms of participation and representative democracy 2. Improve mutual understanding of institutions and youth on participation. A major challenge lies in the wide gap and the profound misunderstanding between what institutions and what most young people mean by participation. 3. Participation needs to be more connected to empowerment and agency. 4. No “one size fits all”: A better understanding and a more efficient promotion of youth political participation require a specific handling of various categories of young people with specific challenges